aircraft

One of the most iconic movies from the '80s was "Back to the Future" and in that original film, just when we think all is well with McFly and his hottie, Doc Brown comes back in a much more futuristic DeLorean time machine and famously tells Marty that where they are going, they don't need roads. DeLorean Aerospace has now made good on Doc's promise and had unveiled the DR-7 VTOL (DR-7? I see what you did there) and it is a flying machine.

Airbus has introduced a new helicopter concept that adds a pair of futuristic wings, enabling it to travel at fast speeds while also providing excellent efficiency and cost. The company calls this new helicopter 'Racer' and says it features an aerodynamic configuration capable of cruise speeds up to 400kmh / 250mph. The concept design was showcased as part of the Clean Sky 2 European research program yesterday, with Airbus explaining that its concept offers the best mixture of sustainability, speed, cost-efficiency, and performance.

While SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic are scrambling to corner the still non-existent low orbit commercial transportation market, a new player has just rolled out its race horse out of the hangar for the public to gawk at. And like those other companies, Stratolaunch also has a Silicon Valley luminary behind it, the oft forgotten Microsoft co-found Paul G. Allen. And just like those companies, Stratolaunch has an ambition whose size is rivaled only by the aircraft it just revealed.

British Airways is having a bad start to this holiday weekend. The airline has announced that its computer systems are having problems around the globe due to a "major IT system failure," and as a result it's had to cancel a number of flights departing from the UK, as well as hundreds more being delayed.

Traveling by car can be incredibly frustrating and time consuming in the world’s largest cities, a problem that’ll only get worse if suitable mass transportation options aren’t developed. While trains are one great option, the future may hold a better solution: autonomous (“self-piloting”) aircraft dubbed flying cars that transport groups of people via the air rather than the ground.

Facebook has been flying a drone aircraft in testing that it hopes to be able to use to beam internet access to unserved parts of the world. The first test flight of the massive unmanned drone occurred on June 28 of this year. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the test flight in June was a success. However, there was a significant issue with that test flight as the aircraft came in for a landing.

A new project at MIT for a wing that is able to change shape during flight is a bit of a throwback to the aircraft that the Wright Brothers first flew over a hundred years ago. The Wright Brothers used a system of pulleys and cables that twisted the wings of their aircraft to control flight. A new wing that is being developed by MIT uses a similar approach to allow the wing to morph and change shape for more efficient flight and manufacturing.

Remember the RFID bag tracking luggage tags Delta introduced earlier this year? They replaced barcodes, which have to be scanned by hand, and now they’re being implemented in an even better way: with the airline’s mobile app. The company is rolling out luggage tracking at 84 airports through the United States, allowing travelers to view where their bags were last scanned, as well as where they originated from.

If you are like me you may have through that aircraft that automated flight systems or decades. We always hear about autopilot systems but a company called Aurora Flight Sciences is breaking ground with automated flight with its aircrew Labor In-cockpit Automation System or ALIAS. So far as we can tell, Jennifer Garner isn't involved with the project.

The Galaxy Note 7 recalls have highlighted an issue that airlines collectively need to face: what happens when an electronic device overheats on an airplane. There have been an increasing number of incidents involving overheating devices during flights, according to the FAA, and the proliferation of Samsung phones prone to such events -- including one that did overheat on a flight -- has underscored the issue. To deal with it, some airlines are now rolling out fire containment bags on certain aircraft as a preemptive measure against possible consumer device battery failures.

For now, hailing an Uber ride means waiting for a human driver to show up in a car. In the relatively near future, we expect it’ll mean an autonomous car showing up. In the somewhat more distant future, it could include a different option entirely: a short duration autonomous flight from one place to another. Such a reality was recently discussed by Uber’s Jeff Holden, who said the company is looking into so-called VTOL technology — that is, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

In 2014, a test flight conducted by Virgin Galactic, the company's commercial space flight division, ended in tragedy when a crew member was killed in a crash. Now, just shy of two years later, the company has held its first successful test flight since the accident. Virgin Galactic announced on Friday that a four-hour flight had been performed over the Mojave desert at a height of over 50,000 feet, marking the debut of the recently completed SpaceShip Two passenger vehicle, the VSS Unity.